Despite the best attempts over the years of Messrs Prior and Saunders in these very pages, and the likes of Harris and Clarkson on the TV, there will always be one joyless cynic on hand to tell you how all supercars are utterly irrelevant.
You will be as fast point to point on UK roads in an Vauxhall Astra diesel, get as much sensory pleasure in a Mazda Mazda MX-5 and impress your peers far more with an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio or possibly the Performance version of the Tesla Model 3, they’ll declare, not entirely unreasonably.
Just point them in the direction of the original Honda NSX. It took the supercar rule book and tore it up, and all that followed were influenced by this voluptuary car. You see, before the NSX hit the streets, supercars were difficult sods, with recalcitrant gearboxes, awkward driving positions and intractable powertrains. If you could see out of one, you were lucky, and you were blessed if you could complete a whole journey without the assistance of a breakdown recovery service.
What set the delightfully aluminium NSX apart was that it was easy to drive and easy to see out of and wonderfully docile around town. It was also in most respects unburstable, which meant that it was a pleasure to own, as well as a delight to drive fast.
A mid-mounted, all-alloy, quad-cam 270bhp 3.0-litre petrol V6 powered the first NSXs, which were launched in 1990. It was a high-revving, super-responsive VTEC delight, producing performance in the order of 0-60mph in 5.5sec and a 160mph top speed. Drive was to the rear through a slick ’n’ sweet five-speed manual gearbox. (There was also a four-speed automatic option.)
A Targa-style NSX-T version was launched in 1995 and a major refresh in 1997 brought in a 276bhp 3.2 V6 with a six-speed gearbox, while a 2002 facelift dispensed with the pop-up headlights. There was even an NSX-R version, with a blueprinted engine, a 145kg weight reduction and tweaked steering, suspension and gearing. NSX production eventually ended in 2005.
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I went looking to buy one at a time. I realised it was the secret car bargain of that era, where prices had dropped but the cars were still relatively new. And being aluminium wouldn't suffer from the problems most other cars do - Rust.
Drove one, lovely engine, not overly powerful, but just nice enough to move at a pace.
But I realised I really was too tall of it. I could fit and I could drive it, but not with a great deal of comfort with my head as far back in the cabin as possible. And with that position all the switches were out of reach of my arms. Nor could I lean forward as my body was jammed in to that one position that allowed me to actually fit!
It was the end of a dream in owning an NSX.
I was picking up a new Accord back in late 1990's when word got around that one of the mechanics was about to arrive and the whole garage stopped work and we all went on to the forecourt - he'd gone down to HQ to pick up an NSX demo - the first the dealership had seen. There was actually an atmosphere about the place - folk were buzzing in anticipation of the cars arrival. Like the Honda emplyees, I'd read about the NSX but had never seen one in the flesh.
What can I say as he entered the forecourt, underwhelmed? disappointed? characterless? I was expecting something really special and this thing approached which looked so low to the ground yes, but otherwise, so ordinary. Toyota's MR2 of the day looked more special.
The elderly mechanic ( he'd been with the dealership for many years ) groaned as he got out it, he looked as if he'd been driving for 3 days solid rather than the 400 miles he'd just covered. His first words were "someone else can drive it back".
It may have had supercar performance but the NSX has to be one of the most disappointing cars I've ever seen. And taking one look inside, it wasn't that much different from the Accord I'd just bought, in fact I prefered the Accord.
The magazines may love the NSX, I'm not sure many others did. Joe Public certainly didn't because I don't recall ever having seen one in the flesh since.